INULIN BASED NANO-ENCAPSULATED PROBIOTICS AS IMMUNE BOOSTING AGENT AGAINST GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT INFECTIONS: A CONTROLLED STUDY IN RAT MODEL

Probiotics have been found to be effective in the treatment of many gastrointestinal diseases, they can be considered to be therapeutic agents. Reduction in diarrhea and improvement in growth of intestinal Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli has been observed by using the combination of inulin and the probiotic microorganisms Lactobacillus acidophilus plus Bifidobacterium bifidum. This study designed to investigate the impact of nanoencapsulation of probiotics on microbiota and inflammatory markers in rat model. Sixty adult male albino rats were distributed into 10 groups (6 rats/group) for 2 rat’s trial (5 groups/trial). The first trial group containing 5 groups (6 rats/group) that named as normal trial group that remained normal (not induce diarrhea). The second trial group also contained 5 groups (6 rats/group) that named as diseased trial group (diarrhea induce in all group). The study continued for 14 days and each group was treated according to the treatment plan i.e. lactobaccili, bifidobacteria, encapsulated lactobaccili and encapsulated bifidobacteria, after which the rats were decapitated under anesthesia to get blood samples. When comparisons were made between normal trial groups and diseased trial groups, inulin based nanoencapsulated probiotics significantly (p≤0.05) increase the levels for hemoglobin (12.81±0.23 g/dL), RBC (7.32±0.03 M/µL), MCH (21.11±0.26 pg), MCV (58.60±0.30 fL) and decrease for MCHC (35.55±0.35 g/dL), WBC (13.53±0.30 ×103 /uL), and platelets count (948.67±3.50 ×103 /uL). Inulin based nanoencapsulated probiotics also cause a significant (p≤0.05) decrease for urea (53.00±2.36 mg/dL), creatinine (0.51±0.01 mg/dL), ALT (42.33±2.58 U/L), AST (41.16±3.18 U/L), CRP (4.61±0.24 mg/L) and ESR (4.03±0.27 mm/h). The levels of microbiota also increased after treatment with probiotics. This study supported the prospective use of inulin based nanoencapsulated probiotics in prevention and management of diarrhea.